The Phenom II X4 980 BE processor

In an attempt to put AMD's fastest quad-core processor on the market, they release the Phenom II X4 980, which comes with a very high 3.7 GHz clock frequency, that's right 3700 MHz (!) as a default peak clock frequency.

Explaining Phenom II X4 processors can be best done by looking at what the first generation Phenom really was. First there was the transition from 65nm to 45nm, if you look at this from a distance it pretty much means that they were able to make this processor smaller compared to the last generation Phenom (I) products. And that had advantages, often to be found in lower voltages and higher clock frequencies. The Phenom II X4 980 BE that runs at 3.6 GHz and has a voltage range of 0.875 to 1.5V.

The extra 100 MHz bump will get a tiny bit more performance, the latest batch includes the latest process technology improvements based on the C3 revision. As such the CPU might run a bit cooler and OC slightly better than say a 955/965. This new revision processor has a maximum peak wattage of 125 Watts (TDP).

Model Number & Core Frequency: Phenom II X4 980 / 3.7GHz

OPN: HDZ975FBK4DGM

L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)

The processor is based on the AM3 package, the processor is both motherboard Socket AM2+ and AM3 compatible.

As this is a BE model this processor caters much more for overclocking as it will have its multiplier and voltages unlocked. Black Edition processors support software-selectable increases to memory controller, HyperTransport, DDR3 and CPU core frequency. This Phenom II part is based on AMD's 45nm Silicon On Insulator process technology and has a total of 2MB L2 cache; 512KB per core. However -- a big change in Phenom II architecture was a large increase in L3 cache. Phenom II can address 6MB L3 cache shared among the cores as a buffer, so it can exchange data in-between the four logical cores. That's 8 MB of cache and then there is another 512KB total L1 per processor.

L1 Cache (Instruction + Data): 128KB x4 (64KB + 64KB for each core)

L2 Cache: 512KB x4 (quad-core)

L3 Cache: 6MB Shared L3

L3 is where a lot of magic happens and is probably the reason for Phenom II's success. Well, that and the flexible and high clock frequencies of course.

Phenom II X4 980 BE processor reviewAMDs current Deneb core over the past year and a half has been optimized and fine-tuned in many ways. As such, and honestly completely unneeded, AMD did decide to make their fastest Phenom II X4 processor even a slight bit faster, yes today they release their Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor, which clocks in at chill 3.7 GHz at default.

Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition reviewToday two new products are launched by AMD, and here at Guru3D we'll review the fastest one. Let's have a peek first as to what AMD has got prepped for you with the right pricetag. It is that Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition we are interested in, clocked at 3.6 GHz.